Camden's arrival: A three day process

I have been wanting to write about Camden's arrival for quite some time. We had quite a few challenging weeks with my maternity complications. My blood pressure just wouldn't settle down...luckily bed rest worked and we managed to get within a week of having a full term baby. Camden was 36 2/7 weeks when I was induced. Just under 4 weeks early.

Those same complications however made for a pretty long labor and delivery process. We were checked into Methodist Hospital on Sunday, September 2nd, for 24 hour monitoring of my blood pressure and watching for extra protein. We made it 12 hours and at 2:00 in the morning the resident and attending doctor decided to induce. A little surprising. Steve had gone home to sleep, since we thought we were just being monitored and we thought we would be checked out Monday afternoon.

Before we knew it, I was hooked up to anti-seizure medication and the induction process begun. Neither mommy or baby were ready for this, so it took quite awhile for the medication they use to soften the cervix to take effect. Finally by late Monday I had dilated a whole centimeter.

Monday night was more of the same... hurry up and wait. Finally, Tuesday morning, everyone was ready to get the show on the road. And I got my first shot of pitocin. The contractions finally started to occur consistently and I spent a couple hours laboring through them.

Since I was confined to the bed, laying on my left side, I had a lot of discomfort laboring through contractions. (I hadn't been out of the bed since monday afternoon). I also had only been allowed to eat a small meal Monday morning and another small lunch Tuesday before the Pitocin was administred.

I hadn't planned on an epidural but after lengthy discussions with the medical team, we decided it would be for the best. Once that was administered, things continued to move onward (or should I say downward). By 10:00 or so, all was ready to go and the pushing began. The epidural was turned down and I pushed hard through each contraction. For FOUR HOURS. Baby just wouldn't crown.

The doctor stopped in and mentioned that maybe we get the vacuum to assist the delivery and after a few more pushes, the baby crowned. I'm not sure why they didn't mention the vacuum earlier, apparently that was all the incentive I needed.

Camden arrived and Steve cut his cord and he was ushered over to the NICU nurses to get checked out. We heard his little cries and my heart just melted. At this point my bed was positioned so I was head down and I had a huge dose of fluids being administed by IV.


Finally, Camden was brought over to me and I got to see him for the first time. It was so amazing, no words can describe it. Just a few quick kisses from Mommy was all I got before he and his daddy headed up to the Level 2 nursery to check him out in more detail. Because he was four weeks early and because of the meds I was on, he needed a little extra boost from the neonatel nurses.

He was given some glucose in an IV to increase his blood sugar level and they monitored his breathing to ensure he would do fine on his own. Thankfully the small IV was all he needed and he was sent back down me. It wasn't long before Daddy ushered baby back to my room to
begin our family bonding time. A little delayed, maybe, but it was certainly quite precious all the same. Once in the post partum room, we started making all our calls.

First Grandma and Grandpa Nguyen we're notified, then Grandma and Grandpa Sindt. We then called Aunt Paige and Uncle Tony and Aunt Lisa. It was with such joy that we announced his birth!